7 Special Warm-up Exercises for Better Running Effects

Recently, the number of people who start running for fitness and wellness are growing. Especially increasing are female runners. For those fashion-sensitive female runners, there are many style-conscious running clothes and shoes on sale.

Running is a type of cardiovascular, which is expected to offer many benefits such as promotion of weight loss due to fat-burning, improvement of stiff shoulders and poor blood flow due to promoting blood circulation, and skin-beautifying due to improving metabolisms.

To start running all you need is a pair of shoes. Yet, for better running effects, you need warm-up that has good effects not only on injury avoidance but also on upgrading running effects by warming your body.

Now, let’s learn how warm-up upgrades running effects.

7 Special Warm-up Exercises for Better Running Effects

Let’s Start with Jumping!

Maybe many of you first think up stretches when it comes to warm-up. Yet, be sure not to stretch yourself while your body is not warm. When you are not warm enough, your muscles are not loosened enough, which might cause you injuries.

Let’s jump and warm yourself before you go to stretches. Loosen your upper body and repeat jumping lightly. Since the inner thigh muscles are hard to be loosen, try to pay special attention on the muscles when jumping.

Let’s Do Knee Bends!

Warm-up is for quite literally warming up your body and boost cell activity. To achieve such, good blood circulation is required. Knee bends promote blood flow with movements of lower body muscles and return of blood back to the heart.

Let’s Stretch Your Thighs!

Muscles in your thighs are very large with many blood flows. Yet, thighs tends to save fats, which inhibits blood circulation. Poor blood circulation lowers fat metabolisms and fails to excrete toxins and waste.

It is essential to loosen the muscles in your thighs by warm-up for better effects of running. Stand with feet a little wider than shoulder-width apart, keep weight on one leg, and start stretching your legs.

Make sure your thighs are stretched enough and your muscles are moving while doing this exercise.

By stretching your thighs enough, this exercise are effective on prevention of muscle strain.

Let’s Stretch Your Hip Joint!

Around the hip joint, there are many lymphatic vessels. By lymph massage effects, wastes get easily excreted, which will bring more effects on weight loss or skin-beautifying.

Loosening up the hip joint helps you keep good posture. One easy hip joint exercise is: sit on the floor, bend your legs and press the soles of your feet together, and lean forward with your torso.

This exercise might not be so easy first. Then, do it with gradual pressure as breathing slowly. Making your legs move smoothly by a warm-up exercise, you can move your legs forward from the base of your legs, which minimize fatigue.

Let’s Stretch Your Upper Body!

Good arm swing helps improve your blood flow around shoulders, which is expected beneficial effects on stiff shoulder relief or prevention. For upgrading the effects, loosen up the muscles in your upper body sufficiently by this warm-up exercise.

Let’s Stretch your Achilles Tendon!

Achilles tendon stretch is effective on improving blood flow and avoiding Achilles tendon injuries as well as activating metabolism by stimulation on ligaments and muscles. Extend one leg to be stretched behind with your knee bend and heel on the ground.

Slowly sink down with your hips and hold the posture for 10 seconds. Do this with the other leg and repeat the set for a few times. When you feel sluggish with your lower body, the Achilles tendon stretch is also effective. However, be sure not to overdo it.

Rotate Your Hips!

A warm-up exercise with slowly and widely rotating your hip helps fix pelvic tilts. It also helps strengthen your inner muscles, which is expected to be effective on adjusting body distortion and slim down your lower abdomen.

By adjusting your body and pelvis, you will feel easy to keep good running posture. Stand with your feet shoulder-width open, rotate your hips only being careful not to rotate the other parts.

Also from the same starting posture, place your hands at the waist and move your hips back and forth. Do these exercise slowly to a reasonable extent.

What do you find these exercises?
With these warm-up exercises, your body heat rises and cells are activated, which upgrading effects of running. Also muscles become tender, which prevent injuries.

It is also important to cool down your body. Leaving wastes after exercise will sometimes cause stiff and thick muscles resulting in thick legs.

It is better if you repeat this course of warm-up exercises. If full exercise is hard for you, try at least knee bends and thigh stretches.

Taking bath to relieve fatigue is also effective.
Warm-up exercises may help you notice that you are out of shape before running. Therefore, be sure to conduct them every time before you go running.